20,000 Days on Earth Review

Nick Cave is what you might call a true showman. The charismatic musician, singer, author, writer and even an actor, who has arguably his greatest prominence as lead vocalist of the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

In 20,000 Days on Earth we follow a 24 hour imaginary day on the life of Nick Cave, where we explore the almost brilliant and at the same time crazy mind of the man and not the public figure. Counting some of the vicissitudes of his life as a singer, exploring his childhood and personal life we walk in a very deep and poetic form until each revelation and conversation with those who intersect with Cave during the film. We found that after all he is just like any human being, has weaknesses and frustrations, that himself does not care to reveal. Best of all is that his whole creative process is extremely engaging.

Directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard and written by both in collaboration with Nick Cave himself, this documentary manages to go beyond what is a documentary film done until now and earns huge points for its brilliant originality. It combines fiction through quite common cinematic techniques and different from the documentary style itself, realistic and always truthful to the feelings that Cave transmit's at the right moment, but always leaving a mysterious side of what his persona is.

The idea of ​​gathering the real facts with staged moments works perfectly and as an example, all the scenes in Cave's car when he travels next to the figures that were part of his career, and there they are reconsidering the decisions made along the career, with absolutely natural dialogues, and magically disappear like ghosts from the past that on the one hand continue to torment him but then give him the strength to continue with his ​​artistic and creative side.

It's such a beautiful and poetic tribute to his career, made ​​in such an impeccabel way. Not only is an essential film for anyone who is fan of the band or Nick Cave himself, because even if we know little about it, this man captivates us in such a way that it is impossible not to have interest in what we are seeing.